Tips to Stop Bedwetting

There is scientific evidence that bedwetting can be relieved by eliminating certain foods from your child’s diet.  A. Husmann, M.D. and Douglas Tietjen, M.D. from the Department of Urology at the Mayo Clinic found a link between dietary allergies and bladder instability.  These doctors found that all of the patients in the report they presented stopped bedwetting when they began food-restricted diets and the wetting re-occured when they resumed regular diets.  The doctors explained that when the patients were on a regular diet they experienced a 50% reduction in bladder capacity and uninhibited bladder contractions.  While on a hypo-allergenic diet, they demonstrated normal bladder control.

James C. Breneman, M.D. stated in his book Basics of Food Allergy, that “control of food allergy is effective in curbing bedwetting in 4 out of 5 patients”. Dr. Breneman conducted a study of 65 bedwetters and found that every single one of the participants had complete relief of symptoms by avoiding the foods to which they were allergic.

When an allergen is consumed, the bladder becomes rigid and loses it’s elasticity and can no longer properly expand enough to hold the urine  The allergen causes inflammation which causes spasms and triggers the reflux to void.

Over the past 35 years of practice, I have seen many, many children who were constant bedwetters stop wetting the bed as a result of following a hypo-allergenic diet.

I was prompted to write this article because over the past 3 weeks we were able to help three children who were bedwetters (ages 4, 6 and 10)  completely eradicate their bedwetting problem by identifying and eliminating allergens from their diet.

Tips For Eliminating Bed Wetting:

1. Identify and eliminate the most common food allergens – milk products, wheat, corn, oats, barley, soybean, peanuts, eggs, citrus, strawberries, pineapple, melons, food dyes, additives, artificial and processed food.
2. Substitute rice bread, rice crackers, rice pasta, potatoes, dairy free cheeses, coconut amino’s in place of soy sauce, coconut based ice cream or yogurt, vegan butter and sunflower seed, almond or cashew nut butter for peanut butter.
3. You can find hundred of free, downloadable recipes online by searching for paleo recipes.  These recipes are mostly allergy free recipes.
4. Eliminate these foods for 2 weeks.  After 2 weeks, add one omitted food back into your child’s diet every 2 days.  Keep a food diary and denote any physical, emotional and behavior changes. Your child will wet the bed once an allergen has been consumed.
5. After being dry for 2 solid weeks, one of my patients wet the bed after re-introducing chia seeds – you can have allergy to any food!
6. You can also test for allergy by doing IgG and IgE blood testing or find a practitioner who does non- invasive allergy testing and elimination (NAET).